Navy veteran Barbara Myers, who served in combat during the Vietnam War, talks about being transgender under the Trump presidency

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Barbara Myers, who served in combat for the Navy during the Vietnam War, spoke of the military’s duty to the citizens of the country in relation to President Trump’s tweets about banning the service of transgender people: “We are not protecting the freedoms of any one individual or any one group, we are protecting the freedoms of all American citizens.”
(Photo: Joe Rondone/Democrat)Buy Photo

It was Dec. 7, 2011. She went to the courthouse in downtown Tallahassee.

She changed her name and the gender on her driver's license to 'female.'

It was a long time coming for Barbara Ann Myers, a local transgender woman.

Myers served in the U.S. Navy during the height of the war in Vietnam. Back then, she couldn’t serve her country in the military and be the person she felt she was born to be. Plus, she wasn't ready to come out.

It has been four decades since Myers last wore the uniform. Still, the 69-year-old felt saddened by President Donald Trump's tweets Wednesday ostensibly barring transgender people from serving in the U.S. military "in any capacity."

Trump cites the reason for his barring of transgender Americans from serving: The military "cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail."

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Photos of Barbara Myers’ father Charles, who also served in the military as an Army air corpsman, rest on a table at her home.(Photo: Joe Rondone/Democrat)

A 2016 Rand Corp. report estimates expanding "gender transition-related health care coverage" to transgender military members would be a .04- to .13-percent increase in military expenditures.

No changes to current policies will go into effect until a further directive from Trump is given, Gen. Joseph Dunford, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, announced Thursday.

If Trump follows through, it would reverse an Obama administration policy allowing military members to serve while being openly transgender, an issue that has angered conservatives. Trump's tweets came as the Department of Defense was conducting a six-month review of the policy. Much of the recent debate revolved around the cost of gender transition and hormone therapy for military personnel.

The tweets, sudden as they were, came as no surprise to Myers.

It was just "another promise broken.”

Her initial sadness was followed by anger.

“Whoever is in the military, we are not protecting the freedoms of any one individual or any one group,” said Myers, who rose to the rank of petty officer second-class during six years of active duty. “We are protecting the freedoms of all American citizens.

“We are humans; we are real; we are people, and we're fighting to defend our freedom also, and we want to be treated as anyone else wants to be treated,” she added.

The same Rand Corp. report estimates there are nearly 6,630 active transgender military members, while the Human Rights Campaign claims 15,000 are on active duty.

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Barbara Myers, who served in combat for the Navy during the Vietnam War, spoke of President Trump’s tweets about banning the service of transgender people: “It is sad that the country has come to this point, it is disheartening to see it this way.”
(Photo: Joe Rondone/Democrat)

Myers recalled combat in Vietnam and her near-death experiences. There was the time she stood on the signal bridge on deck when a Vietcong bomb landed right beside the ship. It was a dud.

Had it exploded, she said, her name would have been carved on the Vietnam War memorial. Her body would have ended up on the ocean floor — alongside her comrades, trans or not.

"Those that are in, they're volunteers — they volunteered to agree to what we call the 'blank check,'" Myers said, who left the military service in 1974. "If that blank check is finally filled out, it includes forfeiting their lives for the rights (of all Americans)."

Myers' father served in the Army Air Corps. Beside the front door of her home is his red-white-and-blue flag encased in glass, alongside sepia photos of her parents, and a red rose tagged with a ribbon that reads "in memory."

If she were asked to follow in her father's footsteps again for her country, she would do so in a heartbeat.

"If it came to the point where the military needed me, I'd go, because I have the skills and the willingness to keep that blank check in force."

Leaving a double life behind

For Myers, the path to peace and full acceptance was long and tortured.

"Because of hiding who I am, I had dances with Miss Suicide on three different occasions," Myer recalled.

She had her third attempt planned in 2011, before coming out officially. It was painful living a double life, hiding who she really wanted to be.

But instead of ending it all, she decided to confess.

When she came out, Myers said her co-workers at the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles were supportive. That's where Myers, worked from 1990 until her retirement two years ago.

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Barbara Myers, who served in combat for the Navy during the Vietnam War, spoke of President Trump’s tweets about banning the service of transgender people: “It is sad that the country has come to this point, it is disheartening to see it this way.”
(Photo: Joe Rondone/Democrat)

"Me telling them just confirmed what they were seeing,” she said. She had pierced ears and long painted fingernails.

“From then on, it was a much more calm life for me."

She wishes she could say the same about her other trans friends who came out, the ones who were threatened and beaten.

"What are people afraid of?" she said, bewildered. "We're just trying to live our lives in peace and harmony."

For Myers, that means attending Gender Chats, a monthly local LGBTQ support circle.

It means donning her Patriot Guard uniform and raising the flag for a dead veteran at the National Cemetery down the street from her house.

It means changing out of attire right afterward to head to church for a weekly meditation.

When she's not chipping away at writing her autobiography, "No More Hiding," she's wood working, planning her butterfly garden or maybe participating in Civil War reenactments and working part time at the Tallahassee Museum.

She hopes other transgender people can find that same harmony, and serve as she did.

“Let us be American citizens — in total.”

Reach Nada Hassanein at nhassanein@tallahassee.com or on Twitter @nhassanein_.